Message From Marian

Dear Friends,

Happy New Year! I hope that you’re feeling well-rested after some time off and you’ve been able to enjoy some outdoor winter activities. For your indoor time, we’re excited to provide you with some interesting reading in this issue of M Magazine.

I hope you enjoy our feature interview with Dave Wagner. Dave and I taught together years ago. He’s an interesting person and a very nice guy. In this issue, he talks about some of his research and how his ideas about objectivity and subjectivity have evolved, the role of language and authority in the teaching of mathematics, and notions of curriculum focused on peace and sustainability.

Another feature in this issue talks about math anxiety, why it exists, and what we can do to alleviate math anxiety in both teachers and students.

The “Open Questions” in this issue focus on number and data. As usual, questions are provided for all levels, from Kindergarten through Grade 8.

The “Things We Love” section this month introduces the notion of algebraic identities and how thinking about these in the course of equation solving can be jarring, but revealing, for students.

We talk about the phrase “productive struggle” in the “What’s This?” section. This phrase gets tossed around a lot, and this piece explores how to know when struggle is productive and how to know when it’s not.

Again, our readers have submitted some great “Ask Marian” questions focused on a variety of grade levels and topics. One question is about how to help students who are far behind while another is about students who are reluctant to estimate. We also have some very specific questions, such as one that deals with the thousandths place in the price of gasoline and one that asks if it’s true that any transformation can be performed as a combination of reflections.

In this month’s “How-to Video,” we talk about the feedback that we give students and how we can help build student confidence by framing wrong answers in a positive way.

The “Shareables” bring you games and activities to use with your students or share with their parents or guardians. A few of my favourite ones this month include having students draw pages that include certain elements for a counting book, making modelling clay balls with certain mass ratios, and an interesting problem about how far we walk.

I am often asked about how to get students talking more in math class, so the “Let’s Dig In” videos in our M Live! section this month focus on strategies for encouraging students to open up during math discussions.

We’re excited to introduce a new feature this month called “Books We Love,” where we explore a piece of children’s literature to see how it can be used in the math classroom. The book featured this month is called The Class, by Boni Ashburn.

We hope you stay in touch and continue sharing your Ask Marian questions. Also, please feel free to send an email with any general feedback.